A reinforcement for a reinforced-concrete column normally consists of a plurality of hoops centered on and spaced apart along the longitudinal axis of the column to be produced, and a plurality of longitudinally extending reinforcement bars secured to these hoops. A helical wire wrap surrounds the longitudinal reinforcement bars. The reinforcement bars have to be secured to the hoops at their intersections, and the wire wrap is secured to some of these bars and to the hoops.
As the size of such a reinforcement basket is relatively large, standard practice is to fabricate it on the job. The most preferred practice is to weld the arrangement together, which requires the use of weldable steel such as so-called IIIb ribbed steel bar for concrete reinforcement. This material is relatively expensive and frequently hard to obtain on short notice.
Thus it is standard practice to resort to the use of cheaper nonweldable steel bars, that is bars which cannot readily be welded to the hoops. A connection is therefore made by looping wire around the intersections of the reinforcement bars and the hoops. This is a relatively labor-intensive process which, unfortunately, still does not ensure good positioning of the various elements relative to each other. Frequently when such a prefabricated basket is being lifted into place it deforms somewhat, requiring it to be painstakingly reworked.